Haruno
by Eilwynn
Summary: After Team Seven's Bell Test, Kakashi decides to be an actual teacher towards Sakura. A story of what I wish he'd said, and what I think could have happened afterward. Sakura/Multi. Sakura/Itachi. Sakura/Gaara. ItaSaku, GaaSaku.
1. Honesty

Chapter One: Honesty

Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi were walking back through the forestry toward Konoha. Kakashi had just officially made them Team Seven for the first time; they had just left the training field.

They were walking along when, near a massive, twisting post of a tree trunk full of thick, hole-like knobs, underneath the shade of thousands of tiny green leaves, Kakashi gently pulled Sakura aside and stopped her. "Sakura," he said quietly, "we need to talk. Sasuke, go ahead."

Sasuke looked back over his shoulder curiously and then kept walking, his face still holding the peace of one in an unusually good mood.

"Kakashi-sensei." Sakura scowled. "I was hoping to talk to Sasuke-kun and try to squeeze a date out of him." She tried her best not to sound sulky, but it didn't work.

"Sakura, you haven't changed," said Kakashi, his expression frozen fearsomely above her, frigid.

"Er - what?" She blinked. Then she laughed uneasily. "Kakashi-sensei, if this is another test, I -"

"No, Sakura. No more tests."

Something in his voice made her pause.

"Kakashi-sensei…" she said slowly. "What's going on?"

"Sakura, I'm going to be honest with you," said Kakashi, and he did sound just that - honest. "Do you know why you passed you back there? Because I can only pass a three-man team, and those two boys deserved a pass."

Sakura felt something freeze inside her chest.

"I know that may sound harsh, but I need you to listen to me.

"All you did was faint. Even Naruto put up more of a fight than you. I don't care how smart you are, or how much potential you have - on a practical level, right now you're less talented than Naruto."

Tears filled Sakura's eyes as she fell into a dreary kind of despair. _Less talented than Naruto._ Even Inner Sakura was having trouble with that one.

"And then you didn't do anything in the team's favor in the second test. You were the only one who protested putting the team first - because on a practical level, you always put yourself first. You went after your crush instead of helping your teammate during the first test. Then you protested putting your teammate first during the second test.

"You have no skills. And this dieting you appear to be doing? It's why you fainted out there in the field. People who truly train their hardest and eat healthfully don't need to be dieting, Sakura. Yet all you seem to care about is your hair.

"I'm saying this to tell you - break this habit now. You still haven't broken it. I walked off expecting either you or Sasuke to help untie Naruto. And you didn't, Sakura. You just left him there. You seemed to think it was funny."

"Sasuke-kun left him, too!" Sakura protested. "And I don't always put myself first - I put my love and Sasuke-kun first!"

"I am about to make a few things brutally, honestly clear to you," said Kakashi, sighing.

He hadn't done that already? Sakura thought with dread, shrinking in on herself.

"You say you put your love for Sasuke first, but what do you really know about him? At this point in your life, Sakura, you're not in love with Sasuke. You're in love with the ideal you have of Sasuke. In other words, you're in love with yourself.

"You don't always put Sasuke first. You put your perfect image of you and Sasuke together first. You don't seem, at least not at this point in your life, to put his feelings first in any way. You have to recognize that he seems uncomfortable when you chase after him, squealing and calling his name and giggling over him and always wanting to be close to him.

"But you do it anyway. You define yourself by this perfect image you have of your future. As evidenced by the fact that you talked about nothing but him in your introduction of yourself to the team.

"I know nothing about you besides that you like Sasuke."

"But… but there are other things about me!" Sakura protested. "I like reading, and crossword and sudoku puzzles, and flowers and hair ribbons, and I love sweets but I hate spicy food!"

"Exactly. And I wouldn't know any of that about you. Because you didn't seem to find it worth telling me," said Kakashi, exasperated. "And as for Sasuke?

"Sakura, I'm going to continue on my general bent of being honest with you. Sasuke is obsessed with killing the man who murdered his family. That is his current purpose in life. He is never going to notice you until he has murdered a man classified above A level. Assuming he survives the experience, and assuming he decides he likes you afterward.

"Right now Sasuke is emotionally shut down. In a way you can't get through to with packed lunches and dates. He went through the horribly traumatizing experience of watching his family be murdered in front of him, and he reacted it to in the worst way possible. First, he completely shut down emotionally. Then he set himself an impossible, suicidal honor goal. Then he decided everyone else was beneath him and to never have contact with anyone again. Then he decided he needs absolutely no help, which means you can't help him - he has to come to you on his own.

"Do you see him doing that?"

Sakura was not crying by now. She was silent.

"I'm telling you because… I don't know, maybe in ten years it will work. But chasing Uchiha Sasuke is not a very spectacular goal for a preteen girl to have. Especially when her attentions seem to make him visibly uncomfortable. For fuck's sake, Sakura, the poor kid probably has PTSD!"

Kakashi threw up his hands in the air.

"So no. I did not expect Sasuke to go back for Naruto. Because I don't expect Sasuke to directly acknowledge he cares about anybody. He offered Naruto his lunch during a mock mission. That is the most I expect from him. For him, that is a great show of vulnerability.

"But you? You come from a great family, loving parents who are still married. The most traumatizing thing that's ever happened to you is probably friendship drama and preteen crushes.

"But you acted exactly the same as Sasuke. And I can tell you right now? This not-crying is the most useful thing I have so far seen you do. Crying doesn't get you anywhere in the world of the ninja. So you can stop feeling sorry for yourself.

"Because that kid you just left back there? He grew up in total isolation. No one could adopt him under Konoha law because his Mom wasn't there to give consent. Never a single friend. Frequently bullied. Taught himself everything he knows. He didn't really have a much happier childhood than Sasuke. Me? I had a single father who committed suicide when I was five. A few years later I was a child soldier in the Third War, back before those were illegalized."

Sakura looked up with big, horrified eyes.

"And this conversation? It's probably one of the worst things that's ever happened to you. Do you see any of us crying?"

Sakura bowed her head - feeling true shame. For once, Inner Sakura was silent.

"To be honest, Sakura, I was going to tie you to the post. But Naruto broke my direct rules. So I had to give that poor sap the axe instead. But you know what? At least he put in an effort. He fought. It's more than you did.

"No Genin was going to hide from a Jounin. This Naruto you consider so stupid? He might have actually figured that out. So he faced me head-on. And that takes balls. It does.

"You fainted."

"... I'm not a nice person, am I?" said Sakura quietly, almost to myself. "I complained to Sasuke-kun about Naruto. The day teams were announced. I said he was lucky not to have any parents there to get angry with him."

"... You said an orphan was lucky not to have any parents," said Kakashi slowly and incredulously, "to another orphan?"

Sakura winced, staring at her toes.

"How… how do I get stronger?" she said at last. "You… told me to exercise more and eat healthier, not diet. So I can do that. But… what else can I do? Kakashi-sensei," she said painfully, "I don't have parents powerful enough to pass on any abilities to me. That's why… I don't have any."

Kakashi looked down at her expressionlessly for a long moment.

"There are two women I can contact," he said at last, and Sakura's head shot up, "who I think might be of benefit to you. You can train with them alongside our D rank first missions. Your chakra control seems good, so Kurenai, a genjutsu specialist, might be of benefit to you if I can swing her. And Anko… well, Anko's good at everything, but especially taijutsu, elemental ninjutsu, and snake summoning.

"Meanwhile, I can help you integrate your intelligence into battlefield strategy and I can teach you how to officially register the Haruno as a clan. Basically, it entails a lot of paperwork and a promise to have significant clan abilities by sixteen. Clan status comes with certain privileges, among them multiple marriages. And with your parents as minor ninja as well… it should work.

"But are you willing to put in the effort? Anko is especially harsh, but neither woman will be an easy taskmistress."

"... Yes," said Sakura, becoming more determined. "I'm ready."

"Very well then. Here's a freebie: tie up your hair. An enemy could yank on it in a fight and use it as a vehicle to capture you. And that would be a really stupid way to get caught.

"Beyond that… I will talk to the two women. In the meantime I suggest you start changing your ways by going to untie Naruto," said Kakashi meaningfully, his eyes flashing, and he walked off.

Sakura slowly reached up… and tied her long pink hair in a bun, wrapping her hitai-ate around it. Then she turned back toward the training field she'd hoped she'd never see again.

As Sakura walked back across the velvety green grassy field toward the massive, intricate chain-linking of the training field fence-line, she had a lot to think about. Most troubling… was what Kakashi had said about Sasuke.

 _"You say you put your love for Sasuke first, but what do you really know about him? At this point in your life, Sakura, you're not in love with Sasuke. You're in love with the ideal you have of Sasuke. In other words, you're in love with yourself._

 _"You don't always put Sasuke first. You put your perfect image of you and Sasuke together first. You don't seem, at least not at this point in your life, to put his feelings first in any way. You have to recognize that he seems uncomfortable when you chase after him, squealing and calling his name and giggling over him and always wanting to be close to him._

 _"But you do it anyway. You define yourself by this perfect image you have of your future. As evidenced by the fact that you talked about nothing but him in your introduction of yourself to the team._

 _"I know nothing about you besides that you like Sasuke."_

 _"But… but there are other things about me!" Sakura protested. "I like reading, and crossword and sudoku puzzles, and flowers and hair ribbons, and I love sweets but I hate spicy food!"_

 _"Exactly. And I wouldn't know any of that about you. Because you didn't seem to find it worth telling me," said Kakashi, exasperated. "And as for Sasuke?_

 _"Sakura, I'm going to continue on my general bent of being honest with you. Sasuke is obsessed with killing the man who murdered his family. That is his current purpose in life. He is never going to notice you until he has murdered a man classified above A level. Assuming he survives the experience, and assuming he decides he likes you afterward._

 _"Right now Sasuke is emotionally shut down. In a way you can't get through to with packed lunches and dates. He went through the horribly traumatizing experience of watching his family be murdered in front of him, and he reacted it to in the worst way possible. First, he completely shut down emotionally. Then he set himself an impossible, suicidal honor goal. Then he decided everyone else was beneath him and to never have contact with anyone again. Then he decided he needs absolutely no help, which means you can't help him - he has to come to you on his own._

 _"Do you see him doing that?"_

 _Sakura was not crying by now. She was silent._

 _"I'm telling you because… I don't know, maybe in ten years it will work. But chasing Uchiha Sasuke is not a very spectacular goal for a preteen girl to have. Especially when her attentions seem to make him visibly uncomfortable. For fuck's sake, Sakura, the poor kid probably has PTSD!"_

 _Kakashi threw up his hands in the air._

 _"So no. I did not expect Sasuke to go back for Naruto. Because I don't expect Sasuke to directly acknowledge he cares about anybody. He offered Naruto his lunch during a mock mission. That is the most I expect from him. For him, that is a great show of vulnerability._

 _"But you? You come from a great family, loving parents who are still married. The most traumatizing thing that's ever happened to you is probably friendship drama and preteen crushes._

 _"But you acted exactly the same as Sasuke."_

So that was what PTSD and lack of emotional feeling looked like. But Sasuke… Sasuke had shown he liked her the day of the team announcements. Hadn't he?

She approached Naruto's post slowly, frowning.

"Wow, you came back, Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted, excited, writhing around in his bindings. Then he paused and frowned, tilting his head, his eyes narrowed and fox-like but with concern. "What's wrong?"

"Naruto, do you know what happened between me and Sasuke-kun at lunch on the day of team announcements?" said Sakura, revealing little.

Naruto laughed uneasily. "I don't know what you're talking about -! Oh, who am I kidding, I can't do this." He sighed and looked down. "This is probably going to make you hate me," he muttered, shifting his feet, "but I… I turned into Sasuke using a Henge to talk to you. I felt sick to my stomach, so I had to leave."

"That… that was you. Being nice to me," Sakura breathed, her eyes widening. "I… I thought it was him…" She trailed off, hand to her mouth, stunned. "So all he said was…"

She deflated, saddening.

 _Sasuke turned to look at her, a very cold glare in his velvety black eyes. "You," he said with pure ice in his tone, "are annoying."_

"That's really what he thinks of me," she said to herself sadly. So not only was he not good for her… he didn't like her. Not even secretly. What was it he'd said? She had suggested they quit Kakashi's test together, and what had he said?

 _Sasuke's back was to her. "There is a man I have to kill," he said in a soft voice._

Like with Kakashi only expecting so much from Sasuke… maybe that was all she could expect from him. He'd finally said it. That at least until he successfully murdered an S class criminal when he was much older, they weren't happening.

"Sakura-chan, I thought you knew." She looked up. Naruto's big blue eyes seemed puzzled. There was genuinely no malice in his next words. He was innocent, open, and honest. "All those nice things you loved hearing? The Sasuke we know now would never say those things to you. I'm not sure if he'd ever say them - not even to someone he liked. I think whoever he marries would have to not give a shit about romantic, affectionate, emotional things. Though it's weird thinking of the teme getting married at all.

"I mean, he's not exactly known for…" And then he trailed off, looking at her expression uncertainly. "Sakura-chan?" he said softly.

"Yes, Naruto," said Sakura distantly. She felt oddly numb, as all her dreams crashed down around her and all that was left was that she had to get stronger, she had to, or else she risked getting left behind. "I understand what he's not known for."

She still liked Sasuke. She couldn't have him. More than that… he wasn't good for her. And she'd been making him uncomfortable by behaving selfishly.

She didn't know... what to do about any of that.

"Do you… hate me?" She looked up to find Naruto staring at her tentatively.

"No," Sakura decided. She went forward to untie his bindings. "But you should know," she said, all business, "you and me? We're not happening. I don't like guys like you.

"And if you ever pull a Henge on me again -" Here she pointed into his face as he relaxed to his feet. "And don't tell me about it? I'm kicking your ass.

"Because I'm set to get stronger," she said to his surprised face, "and train a whole lot. You should ask Kakashi-sensei for training, too. You never know. There might be an Uzumaki clan whose scrolls you could train from.

"You and me, we have to help each other out. We're the weaker ones who have to get stronger. You plan on besting Sasuke as a rival?" She smirked and lifted her chin, hands on her hips. "Why don't you start with me? We can be rivals."

She felt slightly ridiculous - but she still said it.

She had remembered, also, what Kakashi had said about Naruto's childhood. And that she had decided she was going to be a nicer person.

Naruto blinked happy tears out of his eyes and grinned. "Okay!" he said, lifting his fists. "Let's go wild!"

He was endearing, in his own dorky way.

They walked off the training field together, smiling, laughing and talking.

 _Hell yeah! Let's do this!_ Inner Sakura cheered, recovering at last.

And if that sounded a little like Naruto... well, maybe being like him wasn't _so_ terrible.

* * *

Notes:

This will not be a training fic. One chapter of training, then the Wave mission. That's about how the timeline seems in canon. Besides, it would be no fun if Naruto and Sakura learned it all at the beginning. ;)

I wanted Sakura to be trained by strong women. So did my Kakashi. We thought it would be good for her.

I'm assuming Kakashi always knew about Sakura's chakra control. He always knew about Sasuke and Naruto's chakra strength, even before being directly confronted by them, as he demonstrated during internal dialogue in the tree climbing section.

As you can see, Sakura also did not get over her crush on Sasuke immediately. But I paved the way for her to see certain things.

I always felt like a better SasuSaku story would have involved at least one if not both characters realizing where they'd fucked up, falling out of affection, and then falling back into love in a truer and more open-eyed way as a more loving person. I didn't feel like we got that in canon. Sasuke was Sasuke, Sakura continued to like him even when she knew she shouldn't, and then her crush was validated. That's not healthy.

I actually like the way the SasuSaku marriage ended up, in its own weird way. But that's still not healthy.

And somehow, when I look at poor young PTSD Sasuke getting all weirded over women who are borderline stalking him... and I see them not seem to give a shit... it always makes me deeply, deeply uncomfortable. My heroine is not going to be that person.

Finally, I will forever wonder how much of Sakura's continued childhood hope for Sasuke's affections had to do with Naruto manipulating her. It's actually in my eyes one of the shittiest things he did in the series. That poor girl thought Sasuke had almost kissed her. Everything she did and said afterwards has to be seen through that lens.

Last but not least, I am not saying in this chapter that Sasuke is like this and Gaara or Itachi are not similar in certain ways. But I can see Sakura happily with them better, there are important differences, and it will be... a long journey towards that end of the road. As I said, I love the idea of Sakura and the boy being disenchanted first... then both going in totally willingly with clear eyes and no nonsense.


	2. Lost Areas of Weakness

Chapter Two: Lost Areas of Weakness

Every morning, Sakura got up at 5 AM.

She didn't want to, and was rather bad-tempered and snappish about it at first. But between missions and training, this was the only time she could exercise, so she forced herself to.

She would slam her hand on the alarm, force herself with a great effort to her feet, and get dressed in her red kunoichi dress and shorts. Then she would take her long, beautiful pink hair - which had lost some of its luster without special shampoo and lots of blow drying - and tie it up in a bun behind her head, tying her hitai-ate around it.

She would head down into the kitchen and fix herself breakfast - not even her parents were up yet, in this quiet, dewy early part of the morning with glowing light slowly coming through the kitchen window. And that, she could admit to herself - that was nice.

She had gone to health food stores and cleaned off all their outside aisles, piling things into a cart. She got serious, doing her literary research - she formed a whole health plan for herself, bookmarked several healthy recipes she really liked, and decided what foods she was going to have each day. She taped that plan to a side of the fridge.

So she would have her big - uncomfortably big at first - healthy breakfast, and then head out the mahogany front door and down the front steps to the street. Her first thought was to go for a jog, that first day.

But no. That wasn't good enough, she told herself.

So she timed herself as she ran - sprinted, sweating and gasping for breath. Her goal was a ten minute run around her two mile jaunt.

Then she came back in the house, and no matter how much she didn't want to, she did fifty pushups, fifty situps, and lifted hand-weights.

"Wow, you're doing so much work," her mother would say, impressed, as her parents entered the kitchen for their breakfast. "I don't know what that new Sensei said, but it must have been good."

That even her mother was surprised she was working hard deeply embarrassed Sakura, which overrode her initial annoyance and then shame over the annoyance. Her mother was complimenting her. So she forced herself to say, "It was."

Then she went upstairs to take a quick shower before heading off for training and missions.

Over time, she began to see results. Her slim body became fit and toned - despite how much she was eating, it never looked like she was letting herself go.

* * *

Kakashi took her to the Hokage to apply for clan status.

Sakura set the paperwork in front of him on his huge desk, a great square block of a thing made of industrial wood, then stood back, determined. "I filled it all out myself, and it's all complete," she said. And it was - by hand. "As you know, myself and my parents are all ninja. So I think we qualify."

"Oh, you definitely qualify. I'll agree to it," said the Hokage curiously, and Sakura paused in surprise. He was a tiny little old man with a wrinkled brown face, pockmarked with age, from underneath his Hokage's hat and surrounding veil. Vast windows stood behind his chair.

"Now," said the Hokage, sitting back, "one of you must agree to be tested, at sixteen or older, for significant abilities."

"That will be me," said Sakura firmly, "at sixteen."

The Hokage nodded. "... And you're sure you will pass?"

Sakura felt nervousness squirm in the pit of her stomach, but she nodded, still at attention. "Yes," she said.

"Very well then." The Hokage smiled and stamped the paperwork. "Done. Now let me read you your clan privileges."

The list was quite vast - political say, a certain amount of money from the Council, they were entitled to land for an eventual compound if they wanted it, and only clan people could have multiple marriages.

All Sakura wanted to marry was Sasuke, but she knew intuitively and sadly that was not a good idea.

After the Haruno had been made a clan, Kakashi spent most of their training together teaching her battlefield strategy. "You're intelligent," he said. "You should be able to do this."

Somehow the words came across as threatening instead of comforting.

Some of it was what she did best in - written or hypothetical strategical scenarios she had to puzzle out verbally or on paper. But Kakashi-sensei could never be that easy.

He put her through mock situations in real-time in empty training fields as well. And he was tricky, and he was vicious. She soon had to get over any instincts for upset and squeamishness, which perhaps had been one of his points. She had to think through how to defeat and win in his situations of all types.

As her abilities grew with Anko and Kurenai, these tests became even harder.

* * *

Kurenai-sensei agreed to meet with her regularly in a heavily forested training field. She was a tall, curvy, reserved woman with long curls of black hair and brilliant red eyes. She was glamorous and powerful.

"Wow," Sakura gasped, stars in her eyes. "You're amazing! I want to be like you as a kunoichi!"

Kurenai gave an odd little smile. "Well," she said, amused, "maybe someday, you will be.

"Now. Kakashi told me about your Bell Test."

Sakura bowed her head in shame.

"This cannot continue," said Kurenai mercilessly, crisp and all business. "You have excellent chakra control and intelligence, so he tells me. Yet you fell to an obvious genjutsu so easily. What was the problem?"

"... My emotions," Sakura admitted. "He showed me… a guy I liked… dying brutally. And… well… I hadn't physically been that strong or stable in the first place. I've been working on that lately."

"Ah. You instinctively freaked out. So what's what it is." Suddenly, Kurenai's voice began to echo and there were three of her; the world and the training field began to swirl.

Sakura gasped and looked around. "What's going on?!"

"Sakura, haven't you noticed?" Kurenai's voice echoed to her as the three Kurenai tilted their heads. "You're already in a genjutsu.

"The only way for you to get over instinctively freaking out - is for you to learn not to let emotions cloud your judgment. You must remain calm, and see clearly.

"That requires being put through countless mentally exhausting genjutsu."

And so they began.

Sakura saw things that horrified her. She freaked a lot at first - getting angry, screaming, crying. But Kurenai never let up.

So slowly, Sakura started getting tough - quietly angry - _smart_. She learned to have sharp eyes, and see the flaws in the illusions around her. "That's a genjutsu!" she would shout, and put her hands in a hand seal to dispel, only to find Kurenai standing off to the side giving her a small smile.

When she had gotten through managing dispelling illusions, looking for the tiniest details in the world around her… After that was when she started crafting them.

Kurenai just taught her basic genjutsu at first. "There are three keys," she said. "Chakra control, intelligence, and imagination. You feed chakra into their cerebral nervous system and picture what you want them to experience using their senses.

"Once they're caught in the genjutsu, you can attack from somewhere else in either a crippling or a quick-kill attack."

Sakura practiced on a Kurenai clone, and at first her genjutsu had flaws, were tame and mild.

"They have to be vivid!" Kurenai would bark, her eyes flashing. "And horrifying! Go to the darkest parts of your imagination! Aim for their fears, their emotions!"

And so Sakura slowly learned, not only quick kill attacks… but how to perform genjutsu that were terribly, brutally vivid as a distraction.

Safe to say, genjutsu was no longer an area of weakness with Kakashi.

* * *

But Anko was the tough one.

"HA!" she shouted, jumping down in front of Sakura before Training Area 44. That was how she introduced herself. Sakura jumped. She was a wild-eyed woman in a trench-coat and fishnet armor, her messy purple hair tied up around her head in a clip. Anko grinned. "You look like a total wimp! This is gonna be great!"

Sakura flattened, glaring.

"Aww, are the little baby's feelings hurt?" Anko sneered. "Well buckle up, you skinny little nerd, because you're about to be in for it. You wanna get stronger?"

Sakura straightened. "Yes," she said, her eyes flashing, determined.

Anko paused, then smirked. "Then let's get started," she said quietly, a sliver more respect in her tone.

And Anko pushed Sakura to the absolute limit, screaming at her all the while - to keep going, to go faster, to be stronger and more vicious, to do this or that better. She yelled herself hoarse. Anko's barks were constantly in Sakura's ear, propelling herself to go faster out of fear - then out of anger.

"I'M GOING, DAMNIT!" she began shouting back, Inner Sakura becoming Outer Sakura.

"That's it! Get angry!" Anko would yell at her. "Go faster!"

Inner Sakura began becoming Outer Sakura a lot more often - which, together with her calm perceptiveness from Kurenai, made Sakura quite the iron tough girl.

Anko put her through Training Area 44 - the Forest of Death - where Sakura got down and dirty trying to survive in a jungle packed full of dangerous animals. Sweat and dirt and ruined nails quickly stopped becoming problems.

Anko beat the crap out of her in taijutsu spars, slowly helping her improve and become less of a "flimsy wimp" (Anko's words) in standard Konoha taijutsu. Sakura had to fight back - or be in a lot of pain.

Anko didn't pull punches because Sakura was a girl anymore than Kurenai had. Actually? That might have been Kakashi's reasoning for not training her himself.

Anko pushed her in chakra strengthening exercises to the absolute limit, so that Sakura passed out countless times on her journey to have not just well controlled chakra, Kurenai's specialty, but a lot of it. And Anko wouldn't even let her off the hook if she passed out. The first time Sakura awoke in surprise to cold water being splashed on her face. She sputtered and sat up, sluggish.

"Get the fuck up," said Anko flatly, and she stalked away.

Sakura moved slowly to her feet - "Faster!" - and hurried after her in Anko's wake.

Finally, Anko began showing her ninjutsu.

"This paper is made from chakra infested trees." She held up a square of paper in front of Training Area 44, the jungle, one day. "Channel some chakra into it, and it will tell you what elemental affinity you are."

Sakura channeled - and the paper crumpled into ashes.

"Fire," said Anko, surprised and pleased. Then: "What the hell's the matter?" she barked when Sakura looked defeated.

"Sasuke already knows fire ninjutsu," Sakura muttered. "I was hoping to have a more… unique ability on my team."

"Eh, fire's great." Anko waved a hand. "You make it inside your body and then push it outward, so you can do it anywhere. And it's deadly and fucking _vicious_. It's also Konoha's specialty.

"But if you want something that will be really unique and wow your team…" Anko smirked viciously and Sakura shivered.

Anko showed her. "It's called the Fire Dragon Bullet," she called. "Each element has a dragon bullet. It's a really tough technique to learn, but I can guarantee you no other acting Genin knows it. How does this sound to you?"

She made the hand seals, blew the fire out of her mouth and through her open hand - and before her appeared a massive fire dragon that engulfed the far target, smoke billowing up, and then exploded in a grand blast of flame.

"Wow…" Sakura whispered from off to the side. "That's amazing…" Her green eyes were wide and glittering with awe.

"So let's try it." Anko clapped her hands.

"I'm going to faint a lot, aren't I?" said Sakura, by now deadpan.

"Yup!" Anko beamed cheerfully.

Sakura sighed. "Alright," she said. "Let's get to work."

She did pass out - a lot. But slowly, she managed to make fire when she blew outward through her hand. From there it was a matter of making enough and making it the right shape.

Slowly, she stopped passing out, and she just kept working on it.

"The other thing I'm going to teach you is snake summoning," said Anko. "You'll only be able to summon baby snakes at first, but here you're in luck. Baby snakes are some of the most deadly and poisonous of all! And they can hide in grass, they can relay messages, or they can hide up your sleeves and you can use them in tandem with taijutsu. Nasty little surprise."

Anko snickered and Sakura smirked. That they were starting to find the same things amusing… should probably worry Sakura.

So Sakura signed the summoning scroll, bit her thumb, swiped some blood - and immediately slumped in exhaustion.

Out came two of the tiniest baby snakes she had ever seen.

"Wow, you made two," said Anko, impressed, standing over them with her hands on her hips. "I honestly didn't expect that."

"I'm Mambe," the boy snake piped up in a high voice, rising and shimmering his head back and forth.

"And I'm Mandai," said the girl with a sweetness that would turn sickly when she got older from people's sheer fear, Sakura suspected.

"This is Haruno Sakura, your newest summoner. Say hi and then inform the snake boss, Manda. Remember, no other ninja can know about her besides me."

"Of course." They bowed their heads and disappeared in puffs of smoke.

"Now." Anko's eyes shone, deadly. "You keep practicing until you can summon bigger ones and you can summon these more steadily. And you work to train fighting in tandem with the ones you already know."

And so it began.

So though she was fairly strong in everything basic - Sakura's specialty became basic genjutsu illusions, baby snake summoning, and a growing fire dragon technique.

* * *

She trained and sparred in her spare time with Naruto.

It turned out the Uzumaki did have clan abilities - in Water Weaving Taijutsu, wind and water ninjutsu, and sealing.

They trained and sparred hard against each other, practicing their techniques - but they also helped each other out. Naruto was trying to learn Grand Whirlpool Technique and get a better sense of basic Water Weaving taijutsu; he was also studying seals and had tattooed containment-release seals onto his palms to suck up and redirect attacks. He also practiced trap-making with seal trap tags, some of which he lent to Sakura, "since you're my friend!"

And he practiced slapping chakra changing seals on someone he was fighting in close combat - even as she practiced not letting a taijutsu opponent touch her in certain areas.

Whether it was because of his seal studies or because of his friendship with Sakura and her influence… Naruto became calmer, friendlier, more confident and brightly smiling. He also became significantly more intelligent and less reckless.

Sometimes Sakura went through strategy exercises with Naruto, to help herself with Kakashi's lessons. They formed a good strategic tag team - she thought fifteen moves ahead and he was good at wild, by-the-seat-of-the-pants prankster tactics. He was surprisingly clever, and she told him so.

"Your pranking has actually made you really good at strategy, as much as I hate to praise your pranking," she admitted.

Naruto beamed. "You really think so?"

"Yeah. I do."

So not only was Naruto a calmer, friendlier, smarter person and a true Uzumaki… he had internalized himself as a wild, spur-of-the-moment strategist. He put his prankster know-how to work in his mock strategy and mission battles with Sakura.

Sakura herself was not only iron tough, but fiercer, more competitive and smirking, clever and sharp-eyed, and proud of her abilities. She even had female kunoichi mentors to look up to. Kurenai was classy, glamorous, and all business. Anko was wild, vicious, and sexual.

Each had something to show her about adult kunoichi.

Meanwhile, they were doing D ranks around the village with Kakashi and Sasuke. Kakashi knew everything that was happening with Naruto and Sakura… but Sasuke, though he may have noticed personality and tiny appearance changes, never truly suspected a thing.

They couldn't wait to show him in a bigger mission.

* * *

Notes:

I just thought I'd get right up to the Wave mission, which starts next chapter. Obviously, most updates won't be this fast. I could never maintain that. Next chapter won't be out till at least Thanksgiving.

But lots of fun things are in the works!


	3. I Don't Need Protecting

Chapter Three: I Don't Need Protecting

Their first truly mission-like D rank came in the form of Tora the lost cat.

As they were jumping through the trees of the forestry surrounding Konoha, looking for the cat, Sakura suggested, "Why don't we use our abilities on this? Since it's sort of like tracking and capturing an enemy."

"What do you mean?" said Sasuke curiously.

"Well Sakura's been practicing genjutsu, and I've been practicing containment seals!" Naruto lifted a palm and smiled cheerfully, genuinely no longer mocking, as Sasuke stared at the tattoo there in surprise. "But Sasuke was the best tracker and sensory type in our class. So if Sasuke tracks down the cat… Sakura can lure the cat toward me using a genjutsu and I can capture Tora in my containment seal! Living things can exist in seals. We go back to the Fire Lady and release the cat from the seal. Simple."

"You guys have been training?" said Sasuke in a rough voice, and he didn't exactly sound… happy. Sakura frowned. "Well." Sasuke recovered. "You did need it. You were both pretty weak. It's nice to see you with some abilities. But… aren't you training for your weaknesses, not your strengths? Wouldn't it make more sense to go for the strengths first?"

Kakashi was keeping dead silent on this one.

"Our weaknesses?" said Sakura in a dangerous voice.

"Well, yeah. Sakura's the brain. She's very emotional and in her mind all the time, so she'd fall to tricks of the mind easily. Sealing requires intelligence and Naruto has never gotten points for being smart," said Sasuke bluntly.

"Isn't it possible for people to change?" Sakura's eyes had narrowed. "I'm not sure which I dislike more: that you called Naruto stupid or that you assumed I'm so hopelessly emotional I'd fall for any genjutsu."

"Yeah, that's shitty!" Naruto agreed indignantly.

Sasuke was staring at her, a little, discerning frown on his features - as if he had never seen her properly before, and she him.

"Sakura…" said Kakashi suddenly, and Sakura realized they had all paused on the tree branches and she was glaring at Sasuke, who was half in a cautious stance. "You're leaking killing intent."

Damn. That was probably something she'd gotten from Anko. Sakura took a deep breath and closed her eyes in a quite Kurenai-like move, trying for some spare patience.

"Let's just finish the mission," she said at last.

"Great idea!" said Kakashi quickly, and he yanked a surprised Sasuke forward to talk to him, leaving Naruto and Sakura to run behind.

"You know, you really don't get him, Sakura-chan," said Naruto sympathetically. "I used to just get angry with him because it was fun, back before I had you, but Sasuke's always been kind of a dick. He's blunt, tactless, not romantic, not emotional, and not flowery. He's also twelve and he thinks he's better than everybody and he was weird assumptions about the world."

"He's got some nerve…" Sakura muttered rebelliously. "I say we find some way to prove him wrong. We need a higher-level mission - a chance to strut our stuff."

"Hm." Naruto became thoughtful. "I know Grandpa Hokage pretty well. Let me swing that."

"That's disrespectful," said Sakura automatically, without much temper or malice. "And… you're sure you can maneuver that all on your own? I know you're good, Naruto, but -" She remained skeptical.

"You don't get it, Sakura-chan." Naruto grinned. "This time, I'm not actually being disrespectful. He lets me call him Grandpa Hokage. Out of all the orphans he hands out council checks to, I'm the only one he personally visits. Why do you think my pranks never got me in more trouble?" His grin had turned a tad vicious.

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise, then slow glee… and she smirked. "Excellent."

"Hey! We found the cat!" They looked up to find Kakashi and Sasuke standing expectantly up ahead. Sakura and Naruto hurried over. "Do try to keep up," Kakashi scolded gently.

"Sorry, Sensei. Where is it?" Sakura muttered. Sasuke pointed… and Sakura saw a tiny tabby cat wandering through the forestry down below. She made a hand seal and concentrated. Slowly, an exact replica of the empty forest it now saw was frozen in place in front of it.

Tora wouldn't see or sense Naruto, wouldn't smell him, not even if Naruto jumped right down before him. All current sounds and smells had been locked in place inside Tora's head as well.

"Naruto, minimize sound and movement as much as possible, but you can just drop right down in front of him," Sakura whispered with effort after a moment, hands still in the hand seal, still concentrating.

"Okay," Naruto whispered. He jumped cautiously down in front of Tora… Tora didn't look up from where he'd been sniffing something along the ground.

Naruto reached out his hand and turned it. With a yelping meow, Tora was sucked inside the containment seal on Naruto's palm and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sakura sighed and released the hand seal, smiling wearily.

Naruto leapt back up. "Mission complete!" he said, then he smiled with false sweetness. "Let's go visit Grandpa Hokage," he said innocently.

Sakura smirked slightly to herself.

* * *

The Fire Lady suffocated Tora between her breasts immediately upon seeing him and squealed in a shrill, high-pitched voice, "Oh, Tora-chan, I was so worried about you!"

"No wonder he ran away," Sakura muttered dryly to Naruto, who visibly tried to hold back laughter. She turned to find Sasuke giving the two of them a weird look. She was tempted to make a bizarre face at him, but held herself back.

Maybe a little bit of Naruto had influenced her too. Or maybe she'd always had a bit of Naruto inside her in the first place. There was a scary thought.

They walked up to the Hokage's table in the vast, rustic mission assignments room, underneath the welcome sign. He held up a sheet containing a long list of D ranks.

"Now, Kakashi's Team Seven," he said, "you could either babysit an Elder's grandson, shop for supplies in the neighboring village, or help with potato digging in somebody's garden."

Naruto took an unexpected tack.

"No!" He pretended to be his old self again. "No, no, no! No thank you!" He fervently made the hex sign before himself. "I want to do a truly incredible mission! A real one! Find us something better!" he said forcefully in a bratty voice.

Kakashi looked surprised and exasperated, but Sasuke actually looked like he silently agreed.

What followed was a truly incredible lesson in Naruto's acting skills. Iruka shouted at Naruto, Naruto shouted back, and then Naruto put up with a lot. Kakashi scolding him, the Hokage explaining onerously to him the D ranks they had already been doing for several weeks and why they were best for a beginning team. Naruto pretended to be ignoring him, and when the Hokage finally barked out an order Naruto "accidentally" let it slip that he had still been listening amidst a carefully orchestrated show of wanting in a bratty kid's way prove he was more than just the prankster he used to be. And that, it was implied, was why he was truly frustrated. It was childlike and temperamental yet endearing and touching.

Sakura was in awe. When Naruto decided to be smart, he really went two hundred percent.

Iruka smiled, the Hokage smiled, hearts melted all over the mission assignments room, and then the Hokage said the magic words. "Okay. If you want it that much… I'll give you a C rank mission. It will be a bodyguard mission. You will be protecting a certain person through their travels from thieves and bandits."

Naruto paused, for a moment genuinely surprised and curious. "Really?" he said, nonplussed, the act falling. "Who is it?"

Sakura was also interested to know.

"I'm about to introduce him," said the Hokage. "Come in!" he called toward the door.

And into the room stumbled a drunken, pot-bellied old man with brawny tan arms and shabby clothes. He leaned against the doorway, clutching a bottle of sake. "What the hell?" he slurred. "They're all a bunch of snot-nosed little kids! Is the short one with the stupid face really a ninja?"

"You're not the first to underestimate Naruto, and you won't be the last," said Sakura coldly. "But you should know - he's much more talented than he looks."

Iruka, Naruto, and even the Hokage looked touched by her heated defense.

"Well said," said Kakashi quietly, who had after all been teaching Naruto the Uzumaki moves from scrolls in the first place.

"You're defending Naruto now?" Sasuke muttered to Sakura wryly.

"Yes," she said archly, fierce. "What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing," he admitted, shrugging and smiling slightly, and for once he seemed like he was genuinely trying to be friendly.

"It's okay, Sakura-chan," said Naruto suddenly. "From a strategic perspective, being underestimated is good. I might start capitalizing on that."

The old man had to visibly recover. "Well good," he said. "I am construction manager and bridge building expert Tazuna. I expect you to provide me with excellent protection until after I've gotten back to my home country and finished a bridge building project there."

* * *

A few hours later, their packs on their backs for the long journey by foot, they walked out of Konoha's massive wood gates, which opened for them slowly, and to the long dirt trail lined by massive trees and echoing animal life leading through forestry beyond.

"Let's go!" Naruto cheered. "I've never left the village before! This is going to be great!"

"Aside from the people trying to kill us and the countless hours bodyguarding a construction project, sure," said Sakura cheerfully, only somewhat sarcastic.

"Ah, come on, you're such a buzzkill, Sakura-chan," Naruto complained.

"Hey, am I really going to be safe with them?" Tazuna complained loudly from behind them, sobered up but still kind of an asshole.

Sakura stiffened. "Ignore him, Sakura-chan," said Naruto archly. "The future Hokage and his best Jounin-level advisor have no need to listen to such talk."

Sakura looked over in surprise at Naruto, who continued staring resolutely ahead - and then she smiled warmly. "Of course," she said as well, also looking forward. That he had automatically included her in his future ambition was genuinely touching.

"... They really are pretty good, sir," said Kakashi uneasily, amused. Sakura refused to look, but Tazuna must have seemed visibly annoyed. "And don't worry. I'm a Jounin and I'm here too. You're just fine."

Sakura started up a conversation with a curious question and they talked as they walked. Everyone participated in some way to the conversation except Sasuke, who showed about as much talkativeness and personality as a tree stump. And it wasn't even such a girly, uninteresting, or controversial subject! They discussed differences between foreign cultures, the Elemental Countries, foreign diplomatic relations, the rise and purpose of the Hidden Villages, the five biggest ones, their relationships with their Kage and their Daimyo…

All relevant subjects to being a ninja. Sakura and Naruto even learned stuff about their own Hokage they hadn't known. Sasuke didn't even look like he cared.

Suddenly, they passed a puddle and Sakura stiffened. Subtly, so did Kakashi. It hadn't rained in days. A puddle… shouldn't exist on this road. Someone was hiding inside a genjutsu.

A ninja was about to attack them. But why them… if they were really on a C rank?

Sakura made one of the hand symbols they had come up with to Naruto, very subtly. It was a single term. _Sneak attack._ Naruto swallowed… and nodded, looking ahead again. He really had improved.

Sakura didn't know if Sasuke knew their hand signals, or how to tell him. Maybe they hadn't thought the whole "surprising him with cool abilities" thing entirely through.

Suddenly, two armored, masked ninja with Kiri missing nin hitai-ate emerged from the puddle illusion from behind the group. Carrying a shuriken chain between them, they ran up behind Kakashi, wrapped him up in their chain, and _pulled_. "One down." Kakashi became a mess of broken blood and guts on the ground, and everyone looked more afraid, Naruto even screamed - except for Sakura, whose eyes narrowed.

What the hell was Kakashi up to? That was a genjutsu, too. So where was he… and when had he left?

The two ninja appeared behind Naruto. "Two down." Sasuke rushed forward as if to save Naruto…

But Naruto needed no saving. He whirled around, held out his palm… and the shuriken chain was sucked inside his seal. That included the armored tiger claws attached to it. The ninja screamed as all of their fingers on one hand, one for each ninja, broke.

Naruto got into a taijutsu battle with one, and actually held his own using Water Weaving pretty well.

The other went for Tazuna.

Sakura leapt in front of Tazuna in a stance - and next Sasuke hurried to save her. He appeared in front of her, and suddenly she was looking at his back. She paused in surprise - and then rage filled her.

 _"I don't need protecting!"_ she screamed, her true Anko-like Inner Sakura coming full out for a moment. She leaped over Sasuke using his shoulders as a pushing post and flew down from the skies at the Kiri nin. She bit her thumb and swiped blood through the air. "Summoning Technique!" she shouted, and then _concentrated._

The Kiri nin and everyone else on the battlefield saw two baby snakes fly from Sakura's shoulder sleeves, in a straight line down her arms and towards her opponent. He made the one-handed hand seals for a water technique and shot a whip of water straight at Sakura and her snakes -

Only for him to scream out in surprise.

The genjutsu faded, revealing that Sakura had ducked and landed underneath the water whip, her eyes deadly determined, and Mandai and Mambe had each bitten one side of her opponent's neck - coming at him from the sides, not the front.

His mouth open in a silent scream, his veins began bulging as the poison fast spread through them and he fell to the ground, his mangled hand lying off to one side, his good hand on the other. His face changed weird colors as he lay there.

His partner screamed - right before Kakashi knocked him out from behind and Naruto kicked him hard in the stomach from the front, breaking through his surprised taijutsu guard.

Throwing one opponent over his shoulder, Kakashi walked down to the other and looked down emotionlessly into his face. "He's going to die," Kakashi said matter of factly, looking up at Sakura. "So you should know - you did nothing wrong. You did your mission duty and stopped a criminal from killing an old civilian man. You did feel an adrenaline rush while it was happening, which made the whole thing seem triumphant. This makes you normal, even human. When you come down from that high later, do not hate or start to second guess yourself. Just accept, without joy. This is the ugly part of being a ninja."

"... Okay," said Sakura quietly, nodding.

"That goes for you two as well," said Kakashi, turning to the boys. "The first time you kill someone."

They nodded solemnly.

"In any case - well done everyone. Sasuke immediately reacted to help his teammates. Naruto crippled both and held one at bay. Sakura quite violently ended the other," Kakashi summarized succinctly.

Sakura looked down at the two snakes. "Thanks, Mambe and Mandai," she smiled.

"Thanks to you," said Mandai in her sickly sweet voice. "That was our first real battle."

"And I'm exhausted," said Mambe, as usual both more flamboyant and more exasperated. "Is it okay if we leave?"

"Sure," she said, and they disappeared in puffs of smoke.

Then Sakura turned to Sasuke and put her hands on her hips. "I appreciate the chivalrous gesture," she said sarcastically. "But I don't need a guy to stand in front of me and save me."

Behind them, the Kiri nin lay cooling and dead - killed by her, not wounded by him.

But Sasuke looked infuriated his eyes widening. "How… you two… how did you get so much stronger than me?!" he demanded wildly.

Sakura was distinctly unimpressed. "We asked our Sensei for some damn help," she snapped. "So he gave us contacts. Because we asked him to, and admitted we needed to get stronger. Grow up, Sasuke."

And she stormed off, thoroughly disenchanted with a boy she'd once thought she loved.

Instead she went to Naruto, who might just count as her best friend. "Hey. You okay?" she said concerned.

"Yeah. I just broke their hands and gave the live one a stomachache and a few closed off chakra areas," said Naruto, shrugging. "Why he couldn't fight me harder. That crunch of bone was pretty nasty, but I'll live. Are you okay?" he asked, eyebrows rising. "You just killed a grown man."

"I… don't know," Sakura admitted. "It hasn't hit me yet. But after what Kakashi-sensei said… I mean, I'm sure the idea will make me sick for a while, but that seems pretty normal."

"It seems healthy," Naruto pointed out.

She nodded. "I'll live," she said simply. Naruto smiled at her.

"... I have to admit, the two I least expected to do anything… did the most damage," Tazuna admitted, a little afraid and honestly impressed.

But he shouldn't have spoken.

"Tazuna-san," said Kakashi in a deadly voice, "there is a reason I didn't take care of those two myself. I used a genjutsu - as Sakura seemed to notice - and then I hid, because I needed to see who they'd go after once they stopped trying to pick off ninja.

"And they went after you. The guy who said he wanted protection from thieves and bandits. Not vicious Kiri missing nin. The guy in shabby clothes from a poor country who paid for a C rank. Not a much more expensive B rank.

"Tazuna-san… what the hell is going on?"

"... I'll tell you," Tazuna admitted, lowering his head cautiously, "on the boat to the island. If you want, you can abandon the mission once we reach the Wave, near my village, where I started.

"I'll tell you everything."


End file.
